In data communication systems, it is often useful to modularize interface electronics and other interface elements in a data communication module. For example, in an optical data communication system, an opto-electronic transceiver module may include a light source such as a laser that converts electrical signals to optical signals, and a light detector such as a photodiode that converts optical signals to electrical signals. A transceiver module commonly also includes driver and receiver circuitry associated with the laser and photodiode. To use such an opto-electronic transceiver module, an optical fiber cable is plugged into or otherwise connected to a port in the module. Such an opto-electronic module also includes electrical contacts that can be coupled to an external electronic system, such as a switching system or processing system.
Common opto-electronic module configurations include those known as Small Media Interface (SMI) and F05. This family of opto-electronic modules is characterized in part by generally elongated housings with generally rectangular cross-sectional profiles. One end of the housing includes a fiber receptacle to which a mating fiber plug can be connected. The mating fiber plug commonly terminates one or more plastic optical fibers and has one or more corresponding ferrules protruding from it. The ends of the fibers are retained within the ferrules. The ferrules plug into corresponding recesses in the module housing. In an SMI fiber plug, the fibers are retained in grooves in the plug body and secured with a metal fiber clamp having prongs that extend into slots in the plug body. As the clamp is placed over the fibers, the edges of the prongs cut into the buffer coating on the fiber to hold the fibers in place. Once the fibers are clamped in this manner, the plug body is inserted into a plug cover to prevent the clamp from being displaced and to otherwise secure the assembly.
In the context of SMI and F05 module families, the term “fiber link” is sometimes used to refer to the combination of a fiber plug and the opto-electronic module to which the fiber plug can be connected.
In optical fiber networks, various optical devices can be provided to facilitate routing optical signals to and from opto-electronic modules. An optical device having one input fiber and two output fibers is referred to as a splitter. Similarly, an optical device having two input fibers and one output fiber is referred to as a coupler. Splitters and couplers for plastic optical fibers are commonly formed by bonding portions of two fibers having D-shaped, i.e., semicircular, profiles together.